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THOMAS H. BENTON 



One of Missouri's First Senators and a Great 

Statesman- Reminiscence by Judge 

Thos. J. C. Fagg. 




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THOMAS H. BENTON. 

(.'haractei- sketches can accomplish 
little or no good except as they mark 
and illustrate the historical events of 
the period in which the subject lived. 

I have selected the name of one of 
the first United States Senators of 
Missouri as the subject of this paper. 

In making this choice I have not 
been prompted either by any personul 
predilections or partisan feeling. Ac- 
cording to my understanding of his 
character he was a great man, and jus- 
tice to his memory as well as a true 
history of the times in which he lived 
demand a true and impartial history 
of his life and public services. 

I am not aware that the term "great 
man" has ever been defined. Emer- 
son says: "I count that man great 
who inhabits a higher sphere of 
thought into which other men enter 
with labor and difficulty." I accept 
this definition and applying it to the 
subject of this sketch, I must say em- 
phatically that Colonel Benton was a 
great man. 

Of his early life it is sufficient to say 
that he was born in the state of South 
Carolina on the 14th day of March, 



1782. That his father, a lawyer of 
some local prominence, died during 
the minority of the subject of this 
sketch, possessed of about forty thous- 
and acres of land in the state of Ten- 
nessee, and that the widow in a short 
time afterwards removed to the latter 
state, taking her entire family with 
her. 

Just when he studied law or com- 
menced the practice of his profession 
I do not know. In 1846, after he had 
taken his "appeal to the people" from 
the instructions contained in what was 
known as the "Jackson Resolutions," 
he was in the town of Bowling Green, 
Pike County, for the purpose of mak- 
ing one of his characteristic speeches 
of that campaigj. I was present as 
he entered the Court House and met an 
old gentleman who reminded him that 
he had met him in Tennessee and was 
a member of the jury in Benton's first 
case after he commenced practicing 
law. The suit involved the title to 
some personal property, the chief item 
beingalotof pumpkins. Benton said he 
remembered it well, shaking the old 
man's hand most cordially he said: 
"I was right then, wasn't I?" "Yes," 




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the old line Whiff said, "but I'll be 

d if you have'nt been wrong ever 

since." With a look of intense dis- 
gust he turned upon his heel exclaim- 
inj,' in his own emphatic way, "the 
h— 11 you say!" 

BENTON'S MIMTARY RECORD. 

Of his life in Tennessee very little 
seems to be known. 

In the early part of the war^ of 1812 
this was also true. It is said that for 
a time he acted as aid-de-camp to Gen- 
eral Jackson and subsequently went 
to work to orjranize a regiment of vol- 
unteers for Jackson's army, but this 
was not completed before the battle of 
New Orleans, and his troops were dis- 
banded. Soon after this he was made 
a lieutenant colonel in the regular 
service, but he only retained his office 
a short time. He resiprned and then 
returned to the state of Tennessee. 

In referinff to his military record, I 
am reminded of what was said to me 
by a gentleman of intelligence and ob- 
servation. This gentleman saw much 
of the enlisting and mustering in of 
the trooj)s that were gathered in by 
General Jackson for the defense of 
New Orleans. He saw Benton in a 
colonel's uniform and mounted upon 
an elegant horse. 

In describing his dress and geneial 
api>earance he said to me, "he was the 
flnesl looking man on the continent." 

Benton saw at once that at the con- 
clusion of the war with Kngland and 
the title of the French to the valleys 
of the two great riTers, the .Missouri 
and the MlHsissippi, the most fertile 
and extenHlvo country on the globe 
would b<' thrown open for settlement 
and cultivation. Theru was an anxi- 




ous and enterprising populace extend- 
ing from the Carolinas to New En- 
gland watching eagerly for the moment 
to arrive when they could give up 
their homes in the east and find more 
fertile lands and larger possessions 
in the Great West. 

Benton saw all this and judged cor- 
rectly that St. Louis was to be the 
commercial center of this vast region, 
and he detei-mined to give up his posi- 
tion in the army, abandon his home 
in Tennessee and locate permanently 
at this great central point. 

He came to St. Louis ostensibly for 
the purpose of practicing law, but it is 
more than likely that he then had a 
thirst for political life and that he was 
proni])ted largely by the desire for 
political preferment and the honors of 
official position. 

He must have come to St. Louis in 
the summer or fall of 1815. He there 
established a law office and became 
interested in a newspaper, the Mi^- 
Koiirl Inquirer, a journal that oc- 
casioned for him a number of duels. 
In one of which he killed his oppon- 
ent, Lucas. He was a genuine Ameri- 
can in sentiment and feeling and most 
])r<>foundly impressed with the great 
importance of the future trade and 
commerce of the west and its ultinate 
influence and control in the policies of 
the Government. He was a strong 
supporter of western interest. 

BENTON AND THE MI.SSOURI 
COMPROMISE. 

Two of the great political questions 
that had been agitated from the begin- 
ning of the Government's exisUmce 
were settled by the Congressional en- 
actments of 1810. The surveys of the 



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public domain in the then Territory of 
Missouri had been so far completed 
that it was determined to put up these 
lands at public auction, as requu-ed 
by the laws of Conj^ress. 

Benton advocated the pre-emption of 
the public lands. He saw the intense 
interest manifested by the crowds in 
attendance upon that sale, and the 
speedy increase in the settlement and 
developement of the territory, and he 
at once agitated the question of com- 
mencing the woi-k of forming" a state 
government. He was active in having- 
the Territorial Legislature to take the 
first step in that direction by memori- 
alizing congress to pass an enabling 
act authorizing the holding of a con- 
vention to form a constitution upon 
which Missouri could ask for admis- 
sion into the Union. The memorial 
was presented at the session of 1819-20, 
and the first great war of opinion on 
the subject of slavery was precipitat- 
ed upon the country. It was so tierce 
and so bitter in its character as to 
threaten a dissolution of the Union as 
it then existed. Fortunately it result- 
ed in what has been known ever since 
as "the Missouri Compromise." 

Briefly, the terms upon which the 
people of the territory ipight apply for 
admission as a state, were, that it 
should come into the Union as a slave- 
state, but as to all of the remainder of 
the territory belonging to the United 
States "slavery or involuntary servi- 
tude should be forever prohibited 
north of thirty-six degrees and 
thirty minutes of north latitude." 
Benton advocated the admission of 
Missouri as a slave state. Upon this 
compromise the people of the territory 



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elected delegates to a constitutional 
convention in the month of June fol- 
lowing. The convention met in July 
1820, and formed a constitution rec- 
ognizing the existence of slaves as 
property, and containing a provision 
which required the Legislative As- 
sembly, when assemV)led, to pass a law 
prohibiting free persons of color from 
entering into and becoming 'residents 
of the state. An election for state of- 
iicors and members of the legislature 
was held in the month of August fol- 
lowing. The legislature met in the 
month of November, 1820, and David 
Barton and Thomas H. Benton were 
elected to the United States Senate. 

BENTON AND OTHER PUBLIC QUKSTIONS 
It has been commonly said that Col. 
Benton was opposed to slavery in the 
abstract. I have no sufficient evidence 
of that fact in his own declaration or 
in the political history of the country 
to prove it. In this connection it 
should be said to the credit of Col. 
Benton and for the purpose of fixing 
his status upon the slave question, 
that he was an active participant in 
the work of procuring the act of con- 
gress authoi'izing the voters of the 
Missouri Territory to form a consti- 
tution recognizing the existence of 
slavery, that the members of the con- 
stitutional convention from St. Louis, 
county were unanimously in favor pf 
making Missouri a slave-state. The 
provision prohibiting free persons of 
color from other states from entering 
or remaining in this state was his own 
work, written with his own hand. 

This seems to me to be quite suflRr 
cient to disprove the above statement. 
The members elected to the Legisla- 





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ture in Autrust. IH20, at least a majori- 
ty of thoni, wei-e docidiHlly in favor of 
slavery, and they elected Henton to 
the Senat4> of the L'nited States at a 
time when the existence of slavery was 
the all-absorbinp and controllinfr 
question in every election. This it 
seems to me oupht to settle the ques- 
tion beyond a reasonable doubt, that 
Benton was not at heart an anti-slav- 
ery man al that time. 

is'o subsequent event in his political 
career since that time can be shown to 
prove that he had changed his posi- 
tion on thai subject. And the state- 
ment I think stands unproved. 

On March 4th. 1H21. when Henton 
became a member of the Tnin-d States 
Senate, three of the most iniporlant 
questions tlial had a^-itat^'d the people 
and the halls of letrislation in the 
country had l>een settled. These were 
(1) the charter of the United States 
Bank, (2) a protective tariff and (3) 
slavery. 

The question of the power of Con- 
gress to charter sucli an instiHition as 
the bank had been bitterly contested 
by the strict constructionists of the 
constitution, from the bej^Mnnintf of 
its exisU-nce in n'.tl. It was always 
admitted that there was no dinet or 
e»i)eclal trrant of jiower to Con^'ress 
to charter such an institution, but that 
its existence depended entirely upon 
an implied i>ower under the word 
ncciKKiini. The charter of IT'.tl expir- 
ed in IMll. It was ciiarlered in IKKi 
to run f«ir another perlc)d of twenty 
years. It rented a>;ain entirely upon 
the implied i)Ower under the word 
necfKHitry in the ( dnstiHition. 

The financial condition of the coun- 




try at the end of the war of 1S12 being 
such as in the opinion of many of the 
strict constructionists to justify their 
votes in its favor. The bank, how- 
ever, did not meet the expectation of 
its friends in the refrulatintr and pre- 
serving the monetary affairs of the 
country so as to prevent tlie terrible 
state of things which existed in 1819 
—20 and for some time aftei-wards. 

BKMTON'S DEFENSK OF CLAY. 

Missouri was finally admitted into 
the Union as a state a few hours be- 
fore the commencement of James Mon- 
roe's second term, March 4th, 1821, as 
President. The eight years (from 
March 4th, 1817 to March 4th, 182.')) in 
which he filled that otlice has general- 
ly been designated in the political his- 
tory of the country as ''an era of 
peace and good-will." The line of 
division between political parties at 
that lime, so as to fix definitely the 
status of many of the prominent men 
in public life was not very clearly 
drawn. 

The general division of parties up to 
that time had simply been between 
Federalists and Republicans. It 
seems a little strange to partisans of 
the i)resent day to note the fact, that 
John Quincy Adams, the recognized 
leader of the Federal party of the 
North, should have l»een selected by 
President Monroe, an avowed states- 
rights Democrat of the South, as his 
chief cabinet otlici'r Secietary of 
Stat<'. This selection of Mr. Adams, 
however, is not so difficult to account 
foi' as the appointment of Tleniy Clay 
to the same otUce by Mr. Adams after 
lie iK'came President in 182r>. 



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1 mention this fact for the purpose 



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of callinj? attention to an act of Col. 
Benton tor which he has scarcely re- 
ceived the credit to which he was en- 
titled. 

At the presidential election of 1824, 
it will be remembered there were four 
candidates — John Quincy Adams, 
William H, (Crawford, the nominee of 
a conijre'^sional caucus, Gen. Andrew 
Jackson and Henry Clay. Neither one 
having' received a majority at the polls 
the election was thrown into the House 
of Representatives and resulted in the 
choice of Mr. Adams. Henry Clay 
was then a member of the House, and, 
against the public expectation, cast 
his vote for Adams. The appointment 
of the distinguished Kentuckian to the 
office of Secretary of State gave rise 
to the suspicion and afterwards to the 
open charge of '"bargain and corrup 
tion," which for a time greatly agi- 
tated the people of the whole country, 
to the great injury of bovh the Presi- 
dent and his Secretary of State. Col. 
Benton very promptly exonerated Mr. 
Clay from the slander of his enemies 
by making the statement that he (Clay ) 
had told him in a private conversa- 
tion long before the election that he 
intend to vote for Adams. The cir- 
cumstances were such as to place Mr. 
Clay in a very awkwarji position. 
His personal and political enemies 
were hard to convince of his innocence 
and it was a noble act and a very 
gracious thing for a political oppon- 
ent to do. Col. Benton and Mr. Clay 
were connected by marriage, the for- 
mer being a blood-relation of the lat- 
ter's wife. It was said— but upon 
what authority I know not — that being 
of the same political creed up to the 



election of 1824, Benton had favored 
the election of Mr. Clay to the Presi- 
dency. In Col. IJenton's own lan- 
guage, they had been very intimate up 
to that time and it was during that in- 
timacy and previous to the election 
by the House of Representatives that 
Mr. Clay had confidentially said to 
Benton that he intended to cast his 
vole for Mr. Adams. The testimony 
of C"ol. Benton was of double value 
by reason of the fact that his own 
party was exceedingly anxious to es- 
tablish the truth of the statement made 
by Mr. George Kremer, a member of 
congress from Pennsylvania, that the 
appointment of Mr. Clay as Secretary 
of State was the result of a corrupt 
bargain between him and the Presi- 
dent. A verbal report of the speech 
of John Randolph, of Virginia, made 
in the Senate of the United States dur- 
ing the discussion of the Panama Mis- 
sion represested him as saying that a 
certain letter sent to the Senate by the 
President "bore the ear-mark" of 
having been manufactured or forged 
by the Secretary of State (Clay) and 
denounced the administration as "a 
corrupt coalition between the black- 
leg and the Puritan." Whether the 
report was true or false, it would have 
been accepted as a genuine utterance 
of that erratic statesman. 

The result was that Clay challenged 
him to mortal combat and a dual act- 
ually took place between these dis- 
tinguished men, during the first week 
in April, 1826, near the city of 
Washington. Col. Benton was the 
only disinterested witness, and, after 
the exchange of two harmless shots, 
he with some other members of the 



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party, socui-ed a meeting of the two 
prIncMpals at \vl)ifh mutual cxpliuia- 
tions wore made, the ditticulty satis- 
factorily adjust»Hl and friendly greet- 
intrs exfhanfred. From this ])oint 
I'lay and Ik-nton drifuid farther and 
farther ai>art until a state of violent 
antagonism was reached. This con- 
tinued for many years and up to a 
short time before Mr. ("lay's death in 
1852. 

HKNTON ON NULLIFICATION. 
I pass on to the 'very celehratfd de- 
bate in the Senate between Hayne of 
South Carolina and Daniel .Webster 
upon the resolution of Senator Foote 
of Connecticut, in reference to the aj)- 
polntmenl of a committee to inquire 
into the expediency of discontinuing,' 
the survey and sale of the public lands 
and to abolish the office of Surveyor 
General. The debate took a wide 
ranjfe, taking in the relativa powers 
of the State and Federal governments, 
in which the doctrine of nullification 
by a stale against a law of Congress 
was first asserted as one of the rem- 
edies to which it might resort in its 
extremity. Col. Benton seems not to 
have taken this as at all serious; said, 
"he did not lielieve in anything prae- 
tial from nullification, did not believe 
that there would l)e forcible resistance 
to the laws of the riiiled Stales from 
South Carolina, did not believe in any 
Bcheme for disunion." Ho said he 
"l)elipved in the patriotism of .Mr. 
Hayne and as ho came into the argu- 
ment on my side In the matter of the 
public lands so my wishi-s were with 
him and I helped him when I could. 
()t this do.sire to help and disbelief 
in unionism, I djave pn>of iti ridicul- 




ing as well as I could Mr. Webster's 
fijie peroration to liberty and union 
and really thought it out of place, a 
fine piece of rhetoric misplaced for 
want of circumstances to justify it." g^ 
Posterity will hardl\ give Col. Ben- S 
ton credit for perfect candor in mak- Jv 
ing this statement. It was always his gj 
boast that'he was a Democrat of the ^■, 
JefTersoiiian school. The fundament- Sj 
al creed of thai scliool was a belief in x, 
the doctrine of "State's rights" as. ® 
interpreted by him in the celebrated. ® 
Resolutions of 1798. It was upon ^ 
South C^arolina's interpretation of 
these Resolutions that the doctrine of 
nullification was based. In every step 
taken by that state in its determina- ® 
tion to resist the e.xecution of the pro- Q^ 
visions of the tariff law of 1828, they ^ 
were guided by the principles and pol- A 
icy contained in those Resolutions ac- y^ 
cording to the interpretation of the 
Southern Democrats and the correct- 
ness of that interpretation can hardly 
be questioned today. When the point 
was reached at which Andrew Jackson 
felt called upon to issue his celebra'.- Nj 
ed Proclamation to the people of that ^ 
slate, giving his interpretation of the §• 



('onstitution and defining the relative ^' 



power of the Fedei-al and state gov- Si 

ernmenls. he enunciated ])rinciples and ^ 

viesvs entirely different from those em- ® 

Ixjdied in these Resolutionsji* Benton N; 

endorsed this jiroclamation and really [5] 

became .lackson's chief lieutenant and W 

chami)ion during the whole t)f the ft) 

fierce war that was made against his vj 

administration by .Mr. Calhoun and ® 

his followers. g| 

I am aware that Col. Benton claim- x-l 

od at the time that they had givtsn a ' 



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new interpretation to these Resolu- 
tions, but he did not jiolnt out in what 
essential particular it differed from 
the true interpretation, and the fact 
would seon\ to be that that inter- 
pretation continued to be maintained 
by the Southern Democracy down to 
1861 . The truth must be admitted 
that the pfinci])les enunciated by 
Gen. Jackson became the creed of 
a new type of that party which con- 
tinued to control the affairs of the 
Government down to the end of Van 
Buren's term in 1S41. Calhoun and 
his followers deserted the Democratic 
party, formed an alliance with Henry 
Clay and the Whig: pai'ty and through 
the last term of Jackson and the four 
years of Van Buren assisted in 
overthrowing the Jacksonian Demo- 
cracy. Tliere never was a more ex- 
citing and enthusiastic political can- 
vas than that of 1840, when Wm. Henry 
Harrison, the candidate of the Whig 
party, defeated Mr. Van Buren^the 
pet of (ien. Jackson — for the Presi- 
dency. 

There was a singular combination 
of political elements that secured the 
final overthrow and defeat of the Jack- 
son Democracy. Col. Benton did not 
go down at that time with the wing of 
the party to which he really belonged. 
Nominally he was classed with the or- 
ganization as it was then constituted. 

BENTON AND THE BANK AGITATION. 

He was re-elected to the Senate in 
1844 for another term of six years, but 
the "hand-writing on the wall" was 
already beginning to appear. Those 
who then began to take charge of the 
party machinery had no use for Ben- 
ton, nor any other Jackson Democrat. 



Nobody doubted the fact that Benton 
had been truly loyal to the party and 
Jackson's chief lieutenant from the 
day of his first inauguration down to 
the end of his successor's term of Of- 
fice, (1828-1840.) 

In his first annual message to Con- 
gress in 1829 President Jackson de- 
clared his hostility to the re-charter- 
ing of the Bank of the United States. 
The chart3r granted in 1810 did not 
expire until 1836. Jackson anticipat- 
ed that the friends of the Bank would 
not wait until near the end of the lim- 
ited time of its existence before' an ap- 
plication would be made foi- its renew- 
al. He knew that the Bank was pow- 
erful and would use every means that 
it could control to perpetuate its ex- 
istence. The voters of the country had 
to be aroused and prepared for the 
contest when it should come. From 
the moment that his hostility to the 
Bank was made known until the last 
day of its existence Benton was rec-' 
ognized as the leader of the anti-Bank 
forces in Congress, and the chief 
spokesman of the President. He bore 
the brunt of the fierce attacks made 
': by such men as Clay, Webster, and a 
host of other distinguished advocates 
! of the Bank and he continued the fight 
I without loss of courage until the bill 
I was passed in June, 18.32. Gen. Jack- 
son was supposed to be in great peril. 
He was a candidate for re-election in 
November following. Neither he nor 
his lieutenant were intimidated by the 
situation. The bill was promptly ve- 
toed. The great battle in the halls of 
congress to pass it over the veto was 
fought to a final defeat and Jackson 
was triumpantly elected in the month 



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power l)etween the free and the slave 
states. They honestly believed that 
Ihf' movement meant an ultimate at- 
tack afi^ainst the institution of slavery 
in the states and its ultimate destruc- 
tion on the continent. 

The States-ritjhts element in the 
Whitj party secured the nomination 
of Mr. Tyler. The old Bank failed in 
its application for renewul of its char- 
ter and its final death occured in 1836, 
upon the expiration of the charter of 
1816. The Jackson Democracy of 
course was jubilant, and Benton imag- 
ined that it had a permanent lease of 
power. AfterthedealhoftheHank there 
was a money crisis and a condition of 
affairs in the business world that baf- 
fles all description. 

This condition lasted until after the 
election of 1840 and was the cause of 
the overwhelming- defeat of the Demo- 
cratic party. A Whig President and 
vice-president, were chosen with a 
decided Whig majority in both houses 
of congress. An e.Ktra session was 
speedily called and a bank bill satis- 
factory to the majority was speedily 
passed and the country was hopeful of 
a speedy return to an era of prosper- 
ity and happiness. 

To the utter amazement of the Whigs, 
both in congress and the country, the 
bill was vetoed and the betrayal of 
the Whig parly was complete. 

A new cabinet with John C'. Cal- 
h«)un as secretary of state demonstrat- 
ed to the country that a new power 
was in control of the country. The 
truth is that the Whig party was dead 
never to be resurfect«>d, ami the 
Jacksonian Democracy had been mis- 
placed and superceded by an element 



of November following. 

I pass over the period which follow- 
ed and begin with the effort to re-char- 
ter the Bank during the administra- 
tion of John Tyler. Elected as Vice- 
President on the ticket with Gen. Har- 
rison, he proved to be a great disap- 
pointment to the party. A brief ref- 
erence to the condition of affairs and 
the organization of parties after the 
death of nullification is necessary in 
order to explain what followed so far 
as Col. Benton's subsequent career 
was concerned. 

BENTON ON PARTY CONTROL. 
John I'. Calhoun and his adherents, 
among whom was Mr. Tyler, openly 
allied' themselves with Henry Clay and 
the Whig party. These men never in- 
tended this alliance to be anything 
more than a teraporiry one to defeat 
Gen. Jackson and ultimately to de- 
stroy his scccessor, Martin Van Bu- 
ren. To accomplish that it had to be 
maintained until an opportunity 
should occur to put the Southern 
Democracy in control of the govern- 
ment. That meant the ultimate de- 
struction of Col. Bnnton, Silas Wright 
of New York, and all men of that 
class. This |)urpose was greatly aid- 
ed by the agitation of the slavery 
question by the North, which was 
commenced before the end of Jack- 
son's second term. Congress was 
flooded with j)etitionH for the aboli- 
tion of slavery In the District of Col- 
umbia. This greatly irritalt'd the 
South and ultimately l<*d to the for- 
mation of a design on the part of the 
BQUthcrn politicians to extend the 
area of slavery ostensibly for the 
\ purpose of preserving the balance of 



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that would thereafter rule the country. 
In order to secure this position the 
old lieutenants and henchmen of An- 
drew. I ackson were tsent to the rear 
and a new arranj^ement made *of all 
the ])arty forces. 

The party caucus and convention 
was declared to be the supreme power 
in all directions. Benton fou^fht 
ayainst this with all his mi»rht. but to 
no purpose. He denounced it as "a 
tyranny that completely desti'oyed the 
rig-ht of private jud^rmeut rnd left the 
individual member of the party at the 
mercy of men, tricksters and mana- 
gers of the machine. " Asa necessary 
means to secure the vote of a united 
party, a candidate was nominated and 
elected to the Presidency in 1844, who 
was acceptable to Gen. Jackson. Mr. 
Van Buren with a majority of votes in 
the convention was unceremoniously 
set aside and James K. Polk of Ten- 
nessee put in his place. In the elec- 
tion of 1844 the chief issue was the an- 
ne.xation of Te.xas. Mr. Clay, the 
Whig- candidate, had declared himself 
as opposed to it, while Mr. Polk and 
the entire Democratic party, with some 
few exceptions in the North and East, 
were enthusiastic in its favor. Clay 
was misunderstood and defeated, 
while the Democratic party with the 
connivance of President Tyler and his 
cabinet hastily consummated the act 
of annexation in the very last hours 
of Tyler's administration. The re- 
sult of that annexation, as everybody 
knows, was the war with Mexico in 
1846. 

BENTON AND THE ANNEXATION 
OF TEXAS. 

By the course of events in the an- 




nexation of Texas, Col. Benton was 
placed in a false position and from 
which he was never able to extricate 
himself. He believed that that terri- 
torry ought as a matter of right to be- 
long to the United States. His firm 
conviction at all times was that it had 
been unnecessarily relinquished to 
Spain by the treaty made with that 
country in 1819. It was afterwards 
secured by Mexico by its revolt from 
Spain and the United States had lost 
its title to it and could only recover 
it by legitimate, peaceful means. 

At the time of the passage of the act 
annexing that territory, there was an 
actual war pending between Mexico 
and inhabitants of the territory who 
were in rebellion against the author- 
ity of Mexico. Of course the act of 
annexation amounted to an assump- 
tion of the war by our own govern- 
ment and a pledge to j)rosecute it for 
the benefit of the rebels. Benton be- 
lieved that it would have been an easy 
matter to have secured it by treaty and 
purchase and that it would have been 
cheaper and better in all respects to 
have pursued such a policy. He was 
unquestionably right, and posterity 
will so decide. 

It will serve no good purpose now 
to discuss the question as to who was 
responsible for the war with Mexico. 
My only object now is to place Col. 
Benton in a proper position and to 
relieve him from the charge of being 
false to the wishes and best interests 
of his constituents and of the South 
generally. He never objected to the 
making of that country slave territo- 
ry if they so desired. The entire 
country was south of 36°— 30', and if 



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it had iH'cn a pan of tlu' U^rritory of 
the United States at the time of the ad- 
mission of Missouri it would have been 
covered by the Missouri Compromise 
and would have been properly slave 
territory, if the people of that territory 
so desired. He was simply opposed to 
the acquisition of any territory for the 
avowed purpose of the existence of 
slavery. 

BEN'TO.V'S SLAVERY ATTITUDE. 

It is proper here to state what I be- 
lieve to have been the true position of 
Col. Benton on the question of slavery. 
From the time he entered the senate as 
the representative of Missouri, he rec- 
otrnized the fact that he was there 
simply by virtue of the provisions of 
the act by which his state became a 
member of the Union and that this 
law of congress was intended to be a 
full and complete settlement of the 
question of slavery as to all territory 
then held by the government, or, this 
act of congress he considered to be 
as sacred and as binding as the Con- 
stitution itself and to be faithfully 
kept and observed for all lime. 

He believed that the ordinance of 
1787 was int^'uded to be a linal settle- 
ment of the question, and the only 
reason why Missouri sliould have 
been exempt from its provisions was 
that slaves were actually hold in Mis- 
souri and was authorized and permit- 
ted to exist by the choice of the pe<iple 
thoraselves at the tinrie of asking ad- 
mission into the Union. This posi- 
tion may not l»ave IxM-n ct)rreci yet it 
was really his political creed and all 
of his ofllclal acts in regard to the in- 
stitution of slavery were control led by 
this opinion. 



He was identified with the slave-par- 
ty when Missouri asked admission in- 
to the Union and his position was al- 
ways that the people of the soverign 
state, or those asking admission as 
a people who owned slave property, 
had a right to decide that question for 
themselves. He always opi)Osed any 
act on of the government that looked 
like an interference with that institu- 
tion as it actually existed in the states. 
He held these views to the end of his 
1 career. 

I In all the violent opposition and 
: abuse that he encountered during the 
years '49 and '50, he simply appealed 
to his record in the senate, just as if 
that was "known and read of all men." 
Kvery elTort that was made to interro- 
gate him upon the stump he regarded 
as a personal insult. "Why should a 
respectable woman of known reputa- 
tion and character be insulted with an 
inquii-y as to the rectitude of her con- 
duct and the purity of her lifeV" Such 
a question, he argued, would not be 
permitted or tolerated in any commun- 
ity. And so with his position in re- 
gard to slavery in the states and in 
the territories as well. 

During his whole public cfl.reer he 
had opi)osed the organization of any 
party upon one idea Parties were 
the natural and legitimate products 
of the difTerent tlieoriys and policies 
of government, ac-cording to the dif- 
ferent interpretations of the Federal 
Constitution. He always ojjposed the 
agitation of the slavery question, be- 
cause it was sectional in its charact<M', 
disturbing the peace of the country, 
and injuriously afTectirig the interests 
of the people who alone had the right 



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lo decide as their judgment and con- 
sciences directed them. But all of this 
was of no avail. Men's prejudices 
were excited, their passions inflamed 
and a spirit of hate and inlollerance 
dominated the masses of the people 
and the fate of the old senator was 
sealed by the result of the election of 

i8r>o. 

BENTON AND THE BRITISH BOUNDARY. 

In all the troubles and disappoint- 
ments connected with the last years of 
his senatorial career he had at least 
one g'reat triumph to boast of. That 
was in the settlement of the question 
of boundary between the United States 
and the British possessions. When 
the question of terminating the joint 
occupation by England and the Uni- 
ted States of the territory of Oregon 
and fixing definitely the boundary 
line that separated Canada from our 
own domain was finally presented to 
Congress, an erroneous impression 
prevailed in that body, as well as 
among the masses of the people, in 
regard to it. A majority of the lower 
House of Congress and many men 
outside of that body, including the 
distinguished senator from Kentucky, 
Henry Clay, went to the extreme of 
claiming the entire territory up to 
54°— 40'. 

The motto of this party being "fif- 
ty-four — forty, or fight." That was al- 
most the universal cry both in con- 
gres and among the masses, nntil the 
country had almost reached the point 
of an open rupture with England. 
The bill finally reached the Senate 
where it was discussed with great 
warmth and ability. Benton waited 
until the extremists had exhausted the 




subject on their side of it. 

When it was announced that Ben- 
ton would speak and that his views 
would be against the popular opinion 
upon the subject, the senate chamber 
was packed to the utmost of its capa- 
city. The House adjourned and al- 
most the entire body crowded into the 
senate chamber to swell the immense 
audience. The speech was the supreme 
efi'ort of his life. It amounted to an 
absolute demonstration of the fact 
that the United States did not have 
title to an inch of land, north of the 
49th parallel of latitude. When Ben- 
ton's speech was concluded the ques- 
tion was settled, and the settlement 
was for all time to come. 

Judge W. V. N. Bay, of Missouri, 
who was present on the occasion gave 
me an interesting account of the whole 
scene. As quick as he could get 
through the crowd he started down 
Pennsylvania Avenue for the purpose 
of overtaking Col. Benton, who, he 
learned had gone out ahead of him. 
He soon saw the stalwart form of the 
old Senator making his way to his 
home, "solitary and alone" accord- 
ing to his favorite expression— the 
crowd givi.ig way as he approached. 
Hurrying on he soon overtook him. 
Taking him by the arm and greeting 
him most cordially, Benton turned 
towards him and grasping his hand 
said to him, "You, ought to have been 
in the senate chamber this afternoon 
and heard my great speech on the 
Oregon bill." He replied, "I was 
there, Colonel, and heard every word 
ofit. " With a triumphant look and 
atone of exultation he exclaimed: 
"Didn't I give Clay h— 11?" 



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THE END OF BENTON. 

nut enoutjh. He was defeated in 
the contest for re-election to the sen- 
ate. Unwilling to retire to private 
life, he became a candidate in St. 
Louis for a seat in the lower house of 
congress, and was elected. His ca- 
reer in that body added nothing to his 
fame, and he came back to Missouri 
determined to make another appeal to 
the people of the state for an endorse- 
ment of his political opinions and his 
distinguished services in the senate 
for a period of time, which he delight- 
ed to call his "Six Roman Lustrums. " 

But his race was run. He realized 
now that his career was ended. He 
spent the short remnant of his life 
in preparing for publication his fam- 
ous and valuable political history, 



which he was pleased to call 
ton's Thirty Years View." 

Benton's was a noble personage. 
His was a stalwart frame, above the 
ordinary height and with a physical 
constitution well preserved by a life 
of prudent, temperate habits, he had 
the proud dignified appearance of the 
Roman Senator. This was the model 
which during his entire public life he 
kept steadily inview and sought to em- 
ulate. He died in Washington City on 
the 10th of April, 1858, being a little 
more than seventy-six years of age. 
He might have left as his epitaph, the 

well known words of Horace; ''£reyi 
munuvixeninin acre peremitus." (I have 
erected a monument more enduring 
than brass. ) Thos. J. C. Faqg. 



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